Mon 13. [13 April 1896] Grey cloudy morning, breakfasted at 7.15 and
left Venice [Venezia] with all the good wishes of the Signora Gr¸ndl
showered upon us. As we got into the train a tremendous storm of rain
began, blotting out the lagoons. All the country green and delicious
and the trees one glory. At Padua [Padova] we had 11/2 hour - it was
clear, we took a carriage and drove to the Santo, it's a wonderful
place of domes and the Gattamelata is finer than I thought - to the
Sala della Ragione and the Arena. There is the beginning of all the
types that all the painters used afterwards - it sets its seal upon that
story and none broke it. The birth of Christ and the meeting of Mary
and Elizabeth are 2 of the tenderest pictures I know. From Padua
charming[?] line under the Euganean Hills [Euganei, Colli] and past a
delightful little walled and castled town - Moncelico [Monselice] I think.
Reached Ferrara at 1.20. Drove through the walls and then past
fields and market gardens within them till we came to the Castle of
Estes - such a castle, brick, forbidding, moated, battlemented,
portcullised - and our hotel, the Stella d'oro, just behind it. Lunched. It
began to rain and was very cold. Out and saw the gorgeous
cathedral, a splendid Lombard and Gothic place standing in a noble
square, and inside it a wonderful bronze group of the Crucifixion by
Baroncelli with such a St George! Then to San Francesco where we
saw a Garofalo Betrayal which I didn't care for but 2 fine donors on
either side of the altar. Back to the Cathedral where we saw the Della
Quereia Madonna and Child a beautiful dignified thing, and some
very feeble Garofalo pictures. It was so cold and rainy that we then
decided to give up sight seeing and spent the rest of the evening very
comfortably in our inn. But it is cold!